The GIFF That Keeps on Giving--Later this month, the city of Gallup and the newly formed Gallup Film Foundation will sponsor the Gallup Intercultural Film Festival. The theme of this debut festival is “Shining Light on the Bridges Between Cultures.” According to organizers, a short-term goal of GIFF is to provide “a showcase of culturally diverse motion pictures.” Longer-term goals include promoting filmmaking in the local community and establishing the festival as an annual Gallup event. Right now, the festival is looking for submissions in the following categories: narrative feature (longer than 60 minutes), narrative short (up to 60 minutes), documentary feature (longer than 50 minutes), documentary short (up to 50 minutes), experimental (any length), music video, advocacy/activism, children/family, animation, gay/lesbian, regional (Gallup area), Native American, international and the all-inclusive category of “other.” Submission fee is $20 per film. Log on to www.gpac.info/giff or call (505) 879-9409 for submission information. Deadline is Sept. 15. The film festival itself will take place at Gallup’s historic El Morro Theater Sept. 29-Oct. 1.

Indie drama explores culture clash on the streets of L.A.

By Devin D. O’Leary

A quinceañera is a very special time in a girl’s life. It is the day she turns 15, the day she becomes a woman. In Mexican culture, it is a time for celebration, a time to show off your daughter in all her womanly beauty. It is a time to buy huge white dresses, rent limousines and hire DJs. It is also, apparently, the age at which a girl becomes eligible for her own angst-heavy indie drama.

A farewell to TV’s Croc Hunter

By Devin D. O’Leary

Fame seems to bestow a kind of invulnerability on people. Celebrities like Marilyn Monroe, Elvis, Princess Diana and JFK are immune to the ravages of time and mortality because they have been forever enshrined on film, television and record. Their youth and vitality remains as it ever was thanks to the freeze frame of pop culture. Also, there is that segment of the population that refuses to believe in the ordinary circumstances of their deaths, concocting elaborate conspiracy theories for the simple reason that celebrities can’t expire like mere mortals.